October 7 – “just because I want it”

 

 

I have a quick confession to make.  There are times when I do like to go leisurely shopping.  Christmas Eve is one.  There are so many people at WalMart on Christmas Eve.  And they all have that frantic, frightened, freaked out look in their eyes.  Sometimes you get lucky and see one of them do something crazy, like fight over that last-minute gift.  Or throw up their hands in resignation that they will never find what they want.  If they show up in pairs they either never stop talking to each other, or they split up at the door and vow to meet again some day when their respective baskets are full.  What a treasure trove of human interactive behavior to observe.

 

I know that people watching is not actually the same as leisurely shopping, so back to the other time I don't mind a trip to WalMart.  That is when I can lose myself in the movies section.  Not that I buy something every time.  But it is fun to see what old flicks they have reissued on Blu-Ray (or however you write that).  Or to check out the new releases to see what movies came out that I never got to see in the theater.  Sometimes I just look at some of the ones I did see in theaters.  Perhaps I would benefit from seeing them again with the assistance of subtitles for the hearing impaired.  And of course there is always that huge bin of titles they are trying to get rid of for five dollars each.  Now understand, the only reason I would ever buy a movie is on the chance that I could someday use it to provide a clip for a sermon illustration.  All business, don't you know?

 

I used to do the same kind of thing with books.  When I was in college I could lose myself in used book stores or antique shops, hoping for a real find.  Back then I had no real regular expenses, so I could always find at least one must-have volume that was crying out to join my collection at home.  Then several years ago I fell in love with Christian fiction books.  We had quite a collection of those, most of which were destroyed by the Hurricane Ike flooding.  Now I am much more discerning about what I bring home.  There is very little I have found that I just can't do without.  Books and movies rarely make the cut in that classification.  The new category for them has become, "just because I want it."  Not nearly as sophisticated, but certainly more descriptive of reality.

 

Proverbs 28:1 says, "The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion."

 

Father, thank you for straightening out some of my priorities over the years.  All I really need is you.  Amen.